An invoice is a bill with enough detail that the customer pays it without calling you first. That's the whole job. Most templates on the internet are built for an accountant's office, with purchase-order boxes and shipping terms a plumber will never fill in. This one is built for a truck: the service address, what was done, what it cost, what's already been paid, and how to pay the rest today.
The template is below. Print it, save it as a PDF from the print dialog, or open it in Word and type into it. The rest of this page is how to fill it in so it gets paid, and what to do when a Word file stops being enough.
What goes on an invoice, and what to leave off
Every invoice needs the same handful of things, and the order matters because the customer reads top to bottom looking for one number.
- Your business, at the top. Name, phone, email, mailing address, and your license number if your state issues one. The phone number is there so a question becomes a call, not a delay.
- An invoice number and two dates. The number keeps your records straight. The invoice date is when you sent it. The due date is when you expect the money. Leave the due date blank and you've told the customer it's optional.
- Who you're billing and where the work was. Name, phone, email, and the service address, which is not always the billing address. Property managers and landlords need the property called out.
- What you did. One line per thing, in words the customer will recognize from the conversation at the door: "Replaced condensate pump," not "CP-1 R&R." Date of service on each line if the job ran more than a day.
- Parts and labor, separated. Customers accept labor they watched and question parts they didn't see. Listing the part by name with its price answers the question before it's asked.
- Subtotal, tax, deposit, balance due. The balance due is the number they're looking for. Make it the biggest thing on the page.
- How to pay. A card link, a check payee, or both. One sentence on late fees if you charge them.
Leave off anything the customer doesn't need to act: internal job codes, tech names, the markup math. Those live in your records, not on the bill.
The three lines that get you paid faster
Shops that get paid in days instead of weeks don't have nicer customers. They fill in three lines differently.
The due date says "due on receipt." For residential service work, the job is done and the customer is standing there; there's no reason to invent a 30-day term. Net 30 is for commercial accounts that pay from an office, and even then Net 15 is normal for a small contractor. Whatever you choose, write the actual date, not just the term.
The payment method is a link. A line that says "Pay by card: [link]" gets paid from the kitchen before you've backed out of the driveway. "Mail a check to" gets paid when the checkbook turns up. If you take cards, put the link first and make the check the fallback.
The late fee exists and is written down. "Balances unpaid 30 days after the due date carry a 1.5% monthly charge" is enough. Most customers never trigger it; the ones who would pay slowly read it and don't. Check your state's cap: several states limit late charges on consumer bills, and some require the fee to be disclosed before the work, not after. When in doubt, put it in the estimate too.
Invoice numbers, dates and the paper trail
Number every invoice, never reuse a number, and never skip one. A plain running count (1041, 1042, 1043) is fine for a small shop. Shops with several trucks often use the year and a count (2026-0117) so a stack of paper sorts itself. Starting at 1001 instead of 1 is a harmless habit that makes a young business look less young.
The number is also what your books and the tax return hang on. The IRS's guidance on what records a small business should keep lists invoices among the documents that support your gross receipts, and the general rule is to keep them at least three years, longer if you've got employees or depreciation involved. A numbered invoice with a date, a service address and a paid stamp is the record. A text that says "that'll be $340" is not.
Pricing the lines
How you price shows up in how you itemize.
Flat rate shops quote the repair as one price from a price book and the invoice shows that line: "Replace inducer motor, flat rate, $612." Parts are included in the price and listed by name without a separate dollar figure. Customers like it because the number didn't move; you like it because a fast tech isn't punished.
Time and materials shops show hours at a rate, and parts at a price. If you mark parts up, and nearly everyone does, the invoice shows the marked-up price, not cost plus a markup line. Nobody wants to see "markup" on a bill.
Sales tax depends on your state. Many states tax parts and materials but not labor on residential repair; some tax the whole job; a few tax nothing on services. Your state revenue department has a page on contractors, and your accountant has an opinion. The template has a tax line; fill it in the way your state wants, and leave it at zero if it doesn't apply.
The deposit line is the one most templates forget. If the customer paid $500 down on a $2,200 water heater, the invoice shows $2,200, the $500 received with its date, and $1,700 due. Skip it and you'll spend the afternoon on the phone explaining why the bill is the full amount.
Sending it before you leave the driveway
The best time to send an invoice is the moment the work is done and the customer has just said thank you. Every hour after that, the odds of a fast payment drop. On the truck, that means the tech fills in the lines, the customer sees the total, and the invoice goes out by text or email with the payment link while the tech is still there to answer "what's this line."
Text beats email for homeowners. It gets opened in minutes, and a card link in a text gets tapped. Email is for property managers, commercial accounts and anyone who needs a PDF for their files; send both when you're not sure.
Then have a reminder plan you don't have to remember. A polite text at the due date, another a week later, a call after that. Written down once, applied every time, so no customer gets chased harder than another and none gets forgotten.
Word, Google Docs, Excel or this page
The template below opens in Word with one click and prints clean on a page. If your shop lives in Google Docs or Excel, copy the sections into a blank document and keep the order; the structure is the point, not the file type. Save a master copy with your business details filled in, then duplicate it per job. Never type a new customer over the last one in the same file. That's how the Smiths get the Garcias' bill.
When the template stops being enough
A Word invoice works until the third one goes unpaid and you can't remember which. Then you want a system that numbers them, sends them, chases them and records the payment without you touching a spreadsheet.
That's what the live version does. In General Dispatch, an invoice is created from the job, numbered automatically, and sent as a link by text or email. The customer opens the page, sees the same lines as the template, and pays by card right there; the money goes to your own Stripe account, not through us. The invoice is marked paid the moment the card clears, the job's record shows it, and the reminders stop. Unpaid ones get the polite follow-up on the schedule you set. You, or your agent, can see every open invoice in one list and never wonder who owes what. It's part of the $97 a month business plan, and it uses the same template you're about to download, so nothing about your bill changes except how fast it gets paid.